Here's something cool I did a few years back. -- A hollow book! (the kind of books you see in movies with a hidden compartment)

THINGS YOU NEED:

A hard cover book of your choice to hollow out (check cheap book fairs or warehouse sales, pick one with an appropriate title to suit the things you will hide inside of it - I chose Beyond the Age of Innocence to hide condoms for a friend's birthday -- don't ask why)

White glue (aka PVA art glue - needs to be diluted with water)

A brush, used to spread the PVA glue

A pencil, to mark the book with guide lines on where to cut

A sharp razor knife, to cut the pages out and hollow the book

A ruler, to keep the lines and razor cutting straight

An eraser, in case you make mistakes with your line drawing

A small container to hold the glue from which we'll dip the brush in (not in picture)

1. To begin - dilute the PVA glue in a small container (I used a McDonald's sundae cover) with 2 and a half parts PVA glue to 1 part water. Just get a nice runny mixture, not too dry nor too wet.

2. Select a couple of pages to leave out in the beginning (including an extra page (I will explain why later) - then start brushing glue all over the edges of the book. Make sure you lather it all over, just enough for the glue to seep through the pages and stick them together. Spread it evenly all over the three sides of the pages, and make sure everything is wet from the glue but not excessively dripping.

Spread glue all over the sides of the book, save for the first few pages you left out.

3. Next is to let the book dry for 15-30 minutes. Place something between the first page glued and the unglued pages and cover and close the book. This is to prevent the book drying up and gluing together pages that we kept away for aesthetic use. Once you close the book, place several weights on top of the book so as to keep the book closed FLAT, drying well and keeping the pages straight.

4. Half an hour later, check again if the pages are dry. Once they are firmly dried and stuck together (you should not be able to open the book's pages anymore) - we now start by marking where we should cut. Go to the first page you glued and start by drawing a box with a half inch margin from the side. We will cut into this box and hollow the book out based on this design, so do make sure you get your measurements right (make sure the lines or straight, or you will end up with a skewed hollow book). Do take care not to cut too close to the spine however, but just a decent distance from it.

5. Once you are sure that your box guideline is ready - we begin cutting the pages out. Get your razor and start tracing the line. Please please please make sure you use a ruler to keep your cutting straight.

Draw a boxed guideline, so you know where to cut. Then, make a cut with the razor, using the ruler to keep your cut straight and remove the pages.

6. When you've cut all around the box, remove the pages that you have cut out. Proceed to repeat step 5 and 6 until you've cut deeply enough, which by then you will have a set groove already - no longer needing the ruler to support your razor blade straight.

7. Proceed to cut until you reach the hard cover end of the book. Take care not to cut PAST the hard cover or you will end up with a hole in your book. Below is a picture of the book halfway through it's cutting - there are pages still, hence the text inside the hollow of the book.

Halfway cut through the book.

8. When you've reached the end of the book, clear out all the little paper bits and make sure that the edges you cut inside are all straight enough. We will now need to apply glue to the inside, smoothing the pages as well as keeping the insides firm and strong. If you want, you can also layer more glue to enforce the outsides.

9. Now, remember the extra page I told you to leave out earlier? Glue it over the first page you made the cut (so technically it seals the hole). This is to give the top a nice finish (there is a possibility the first page might have been damaged during the cutting - mine tore) - so stick the extra page to the first page, then let it dry for another half an hour before you cut through it. Make sure you cut it STRAIGHT; don't want to spoil the first page.

10. Half an hour later, everything should be dry - the first page, the insides and the outsides. If you did it all okay, it shouldn't take more than the five hours I spent on mine - of course, thicker books take longer to make. Mine with a 400 page count isn't much, but it was still tiring using the razor to dig into the paper.

Congratulations you have made your first hollow book! To complete the present to my friend, I added a message inside the book and a present befitting the title of the book with a name like Beyond the Age of Innocence.

The gifts hidden inside.

That was fun to do! You can make it to hide anything you want really; I have a few lying in my house, which I use to keep my old IDs, passports, bank account books, etc. You'll never be able to guess where I put them though.

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